Airport chaos boosts Eurostar

Passengers switching to trains to escape the disruption at UK airports this summer helped swell numbers at Channel Tunnel rail company Eurostar to record levels.

Eurostar carried 2.15m passengers in July-September 2006 - up 9.9pc on the same period last year and the highest ever figure for the summer period.

The high-speed train company, which runs services out of London's Waterloo station to Paris and Brussels, said thousands of passengers had switched from plane to train after the extra security measures at airports had led to aircraft delays and cancellations.

Eurostar said its revenue for July-September 2006 was up 21pc to £130.4m and that 91.4pc of its trains ran on time during this period.

Independent research, commissioned by Eurostar and published last month, has shown that a passenger who flies between London and Paris or Brussels generates 10 times more emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) than one who goes by Eurostar.

A passenger making a return flight generates enough CO2 to fill a double-decker bus, compared with only enough CO2 to fill a Mini if going by train.

Eurostar communications director Simon Montague said today: "It has been an outstanding third quarter for Eurostar. The surge in traveller numbers has been driven by the delays at UK airports. Business travellers in particular are continuing to switch to Eurostar from the airlines.

"We have been surprised and pleased at the increasing number of passengers who say that the environment is a growing reason for switching to Eurostar, and who are prepared to make Eurostar part of longer, connecting rail journeys than in the past.

"We now expect concern about transport emissions to become an increasingly important factor in passengers' travel decisions in future.

"The latest figures also show clearly that the inbound tourism market to the UK has fully recovered from the effects of the terrorist attacks in London in July 2005."